Michael Kors Access Sofie Heart Rate fuses new features with old tech

Over the last few months we’ve seen Fossil’s range of smartwatches updated with NFC, heart rate tracking and GPS. At CES Michael Kors (also under the Fossil license) announced it would do the same for its Sofie smartwatch, and it’s now available to buy.
The Michael Kors Sofie Heart Rate, as it’s now called, keeps the same design of the original Sofie smartwatch but updates it with the new features – including a design that’s swim-proof to 30 meters.
Read this: The best Fossil smartwatches 2019The new optical heart rate monitor and built-in GPS mean the Sofie is now well equipped for tracking workouts, although in our experience with Fossil’s watches to date, they’re not at the same level of accuracy you’ll get from Garmin, Polar or even Apple. But for moderate daily fitness tracking, it should do just fine.
But while the new Sofie is flush with features, the guts of the watch remain the same: Michael Kors hasn’t upgraded to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor found in the Fossil Sport, so it’s running on the now-ancient 2100 chip.
For that reason, we’re not expecting great things from the battery life, something the 3100 silicon aims to optimize. Still, we were big fans of the Sofie in its original form, and in the current crop of women’s smartwatches it’s clearly one of the best looking.
The watch comes in a variety of colors including pavé rose gold, pavé two-tone, silver, and gold, with prices starting at $325 and moving up to $395 depending on your choice of color and band.